Hoshikuzu! Robot Force
by Sailor Androm3da
Summary: (Inspired by SEGA'S arcade game Virtual On) Hoshikuzu Robot Force is the newest game in Litwak's arcade. It's a third-person anime robot fighting game. But when Ren, the lowliest robot pilot of the bunch, uncovers a strange conspiracy, the arcade is once again thrown into chaos. Rated T for Violence and Yaoi (Ren x Rancis Fluggerbutter)
1. Hoshikuzu Omega Pilot, Ren

Our blades met with blinding force.

As they struck each other, we were knocked back. Once again we began to charge at each other, rocket propulsion bursting out of our backs. Locked in mortal combat, we knew who would be victorious and who wouldn't be. Closer…closer…

"OK, it's all clear! The arcade is closed!"

I hit the brakes, and so did my opponent. A voice on the loudspeaker said "Combat has concluded for the day. Please return to the hangar."

My name is Ren. The other members of the crew call me "Omega". We're from the new game "Hoshikuzu Robot Force". When we first started out in Japan, we were quite a hit. It started with the game, and eventually we got our own toys, trading cards, manga, and even an anime. Litwak bought our machine before the "Hoshikuzu Happiness", as the craze was called, began, and we relocated into his arcade.

We were just plugged in two days ago, and our team leader, Kumakichi (aka Alpha), insisted that we don't enter Game Central Station and that we should NEVER go "turbo", as he called it. In fact, from what Kumakichi told us, that's what everyone calls it. You see a long time ago, this creepy coot named Turbo, who was the star of his own game, decided to boost his star power and enter another game. Big mistake. Both that game and his own were pulled. However, Turbo lived on under the alias of King Candy in some other game. Eventually some guy found out the truth and destroyed Turbo, this time for good. What was that guy's name again? I have no clue.

Anyway, my opponent, my best buddy Saburo (Gamma) and I returned back to the hangar and dismounted from our robots. All of them were equipped with an Electro-Blade sword mounted into their left arm, and their preferred weapon of choice clutched into their right hands. All the weapons varied on the robot. Kumakichi's bot has a swarm missile launcher, Saburo's has a laser-guided sniper rifle, and mine has a Gatling gun.

I waved goodbye to Saburo and went to my quarters. The setting for our game is atop the futuristic Shorai City. All of the battles take place in the Sky Arena on the top floor of Hoshikuzu Headquarters. The first floor is the entrance, the second floor is our personal quarters, the third floor is the hangar, and the basement is storage for munitions and spare parts.

I opened the door to my room and flicked on the lights. I quickly slipped out of my pilot's uniform and into my lounge pants and flopped onto my couch. It was another long day at work for a Hoshikuzu Robot Force pilot.


	2. The MIRROR Engine

I don't know how long I was asleep for, but when I woke up, there was a knock at the door. I managed to slink off my couch and over to the door. I opened it, and it turned out to be Takeuchi (Beta). He was Saburo's half-brother and Kumakichi's "right-hand man".

"What's going on, fellow Hoshikuzu pilot?" I asked, barely awake.

Takeuchi cleared his throat and pulled out a cue card from his uniform's shirt pocket "Team Alpha Pilot Kumakichi Harukaze has cordially invited you and the other members of our regiment to a formal dinner party tonight at the Beige Blossom at precisely 9 'o clock sharp."

"Just out of curiosity, how long did it take you to write all that out?"

Takeuchi glared at me "…Half an hour".

The party was quite a hit. All the major economic, entertainment, and political figures attended, as well as Mayor Senoo himself. Unfortunately, as much fun as they are, Kumakichi's parties are all designed to have the big-wigs kiss his butt, and as always, that's what happened tonight.

At about midnight, after everyone had one drink too many, the Mayor got up onto the Beige Blossom's stage and proposed a toast.

"72 hours ago tonight, our game was plugged in for the first time in America. In those short hours Shorai City has become a powerhouse of economic electricity. All thanks to the Hoshikuzu Robot Force!"

All of us, except me (I was a little wasted) raised our glasses and shared in a big "HURRAH!"

Mayor Senoo passed over the microphone to Kumakichi "Thank you very much, Mayor. Now when I started the Hoshikuzu, it was originally just a training ground for young talented robot pilots, much like me, to battle against others. When the idea was pitched to us that we should have gladiatorial tournaments, we decided to put that idea to action. Gamers started playing our game, characters from the other games started coming to watch us fight, all for just a tiny little fee."

"Rip-off!" coughed some drunk beside me.

"And now I can say with upmost confidence, that our game is now the most revenue-generating game in Litwak's entire arcade!"

The crowd went ape. People started banging on tables and guzzled back the last of the vodka.

"But!" called out Kumakichi. Everyone froze, waiting for his next line "Everything comes at a price. You see, our game's code is still in its early beta stage, causing some character roster problems. Say that the gamer picks someone like…Omega!"

As he said my name, he pointed to me, and I could see about a thousand pairs of eyeballs looking at me "Say the gamer picks Omega, and when the gamer is supposed to fight Omega as an opponent in our game, the game crashes, and just skips to the next opponent, making the game easier and glitchy! The bad news is that one of the gamers has already told Litwak about the problem. The good news is since he sees no real danger in that; he's letting us continue operation.

Everyone took a sigh of relief. I felt my heart beat faster too for a second there, but I'm almost positive that it was the whiskey wearing off.

"Fortunately, I have found the ultimate solution to our problem!"

Takeuchi rolled in something stout that was moving on wheels and had a sheet covering it up. Kumakichi yanked off the sheet "BEHOLD!"

Under the sheet was a large glass case with a glowing, lightly rainbow-hued block with the words "MIRROR" on it inside "This, my fellow citizens, is the MIRROR Engine! With this firmware update, the game will be able to generate black-and-white fully operational copies of the opposing pilot's robot, if he or she were to face himself/herself in the tournament!"

It seemed like a great idea. While Kumakichi continued about the details of the MIRROR, I kept thinking to myself "Now I can take longer coffee breaks after my shift!" Little did I realize how much purpose it truly had…

"The MIRROR Engine alone is our next big step into the future of Shorai City AND the Hoshikuzu Robot Force!"

The crowd cheered and hollered. Kumakichi really outdid himself. The rest of the night was spent partying and raiding the dessert buffet. I decided to leave early and resume my nap from earlier. But while I laid in bed that night, I realized now that the MIRROR can just simply make a copy to take my place, now can be my time to venture out of Shorai City and into Game Central Station, where I can finally meet new people instead of waving to them after I had won a match I barely survived through. I always believed that there was more to life than your job. I can't be cooped up in the barracks forever, right?

It was decided then. Tomorrow, at the crack of dawn, before Kumakichi or any of my other teammates find out, I'm going turbo!


	3. Game Central Station

ojaEarly the next morning, at exactly 1 hour until the arcade opened, I crept out of my apartment and up into the Hangar. Some of the engineers were already hard at work, fixing up our bots for the day.

The engineers were robots themselves, except, of course, they were smaller. More like our size, but slightly petite.

I climbed up the ladder and into my mech's cockpit.

"Excuse me!" called our Sprocket, Kumakichi's engineer robot "A quarter hasn't been inserted! Abort your deployment!"

"Sorry, Sprocks, but this is different"

"Cease and desist immediately!" he yelled as I powered up the internal power system. I flicked the switch and two pairs of long metal wings unfolded out of my back. I began to lift off, flying all around the Hangar. The hangar door was still locked, so I quickly shot the "Open Door" button on the control terminal and zipped out as they were opening.

I was free. I was no longer confined to Kumakichi's strict confines.

"All right. Engage afterburners! Set course for Game Central Station!"

"Destination confirmed" chirped the navigation system's voice (I call her Mabel) "Autopilot engaged"

Instantly, blue flames burst out of my mech's exhaust pipes and I was off. Mabel maneuvered me into the west monorail tunnel which, if I heard correctly, led to Game Central Station. Sure enough, the tunnel led into a longer tunnel with electrified walls. Mabel didn't fail me though. She carefully moved around without losing speed, and finally, we arrived.

"Destination reached" said Mabel.

Once we had safe footing, I rolled down the cockpit's windshield and looked around. It was amazing. So many video game characters much like me were all walking around, happily chatting and gossiping with each other.

I tuned off the afterburners and sheathed my wings. Safely still inside my mech, I begin to explore. Suddenly, right as I began to venture outside my game's station, an alarm went off, and a little man with a blue lightbulb head stopped me. He was Surge Protector, Game Central Station's head of security.

"Sir, I'm gonna have to ask you to step out of your vehicle, please"

"Uh...ok?"

I did what I was told. After all, it was my first time I was in GCC.

"Name, please?"

"Ren Harukaze"

"Where you coming from?"

"Hoshikuzu Robot Force"

"Anything to declare?"

"My mech. That's about it."

Surge looked up at my prized fighting robot "Don't shoot any firearms and you're good to go."

"Whew, thanks!"

I stomped around the main terminal. I could tell that everyone was giving me weird looks. After all, I doubt they've ever seen a giant robot before up close. I had no idea where I was going until a video billboard caught my eye. On it was a blue hedgehog that I could instantly identify as Sonic the Hedgehog. I know this because every Friday night at our arena he rents out a private skybox.

"If you leave your game," he was explaining "Stay safe, stay alert, and whatever you do, don't die. Because if you die outside your own game, you don't regenerate. Game over!"

My first but only warning.

Then I saw a booth run by a Black Mage from the game Final Fantasy. He was surrounded by boxes of pamphlets and was holding several up "See the sights! Visit new worlds!" he exclaimed.

I stomped up to his little booth and looked at all of the pamphlets. All of them were tourist guides to different games. "Visit New York City in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", "Real Estate in House of the Dead 4", "See Dinosaurs come to life in Primeval Hunt". All of them looked interesting.

"Can I help you find anything, tin man?" the Mage asked me.

"Uh, yeah, I'm looking for a game where I could retire in peace."

He scratched his big pointy hat "Well…have you tried this one?"

He handed me a tourist guide to the game "Sugar Rush". I've heard about this one. It was because of Turbo that this game almost completely fell apart. Luckily though, after his defeat, a new leader took the throne. I guess it wouldn't hurt to try.

"Which way to Sugar Rush?"

Meanwhile, back in Shorai City, things were looking bad for our team. By now everyone known that I left. My fellow teammates gobbled to each other like a bunch of turkeys, but I don't think Kumakichi was that upset. In fact, I think he actually WANTED me to go.

"Without Ren, there'll be nobody to fight in Round 1!" said Satoru (Epsilon).

"The game will try to execute a non-existing variable and crash!" added Chiyo (Delta, also Kumakichi's girlfriend and the only girl on our team) "Litwak will pull our plug for sure!"

While everyone was talking all at once, Kumakichi rose up in front of the crowd "Everyone settle down!"

He instantly captured their attention "Don't worry. As long as we have the MIRROR Engine, we can easily make a copy of Omega to fight in Round 1. Granted, he may be black and white, but it's better than nothing! Now come on, let's get back to work!"

Everybody seemed convinced enough, all except for Orochi (Zeta). Orochi, aside from me, was the black sheep of the squad. He always kept his distance from the rest of us outside of the coliseum, and never spoke, but I don't think that makes one stupid. Kumakichi was plotting something, and Orochi was the only one who could see it in his eyes.


	4. Rancis Fluggerbutter

At the end of the tunnel was the most amazing, colorful land I've never seen; Sugar Rush. I listened to the melodious main theme that was playing all around.

_Donna michita tte_

_Massugu janai darou_

_Sou magari kune tte _

_Dekoboko shiteru hazu sa _

_Tsurai koto toki ni wa aru you ne _

_Bokutachi wa soredemo hashiru yo _

_Amaimono te mo ikaga? _

_S-U-G-A-R _

_Jump into your racing car _

_It's SUGAR RUSH! _

_SUGAR RUSH! _

_S-U-G-A-R _

_Jump into your racing car _

_It's SUGAR RUSH! _

_SUGAR RUSH!_

It suddenly hit me: The main theme was sung by the same artist who sang the Hoshikuzu Robot Force theme song! This must mean that Hoshikuzu Robot Force and Sugar Rush were made by the same developers! What a coincidence!

I happily soared around, admiring the giant confectionary landscapes. Unfortunately, I was a little too absorbed in my excitement that I accidently landed on the race track.

I turned around and saw a whole gang of sugar-coated go-karts coming towards me!

"OUTTA THE WAY!" one of them screamed.

Quickly, I rolled out of the way before they hit me. They continued to zip along, determined to win.

"Damn, that was close!"

But not close enough. One racer that was falling behind was going top-speed behind me, and it didn't even bother to yell out. I turned around just in time to see it crash into me, knocking me back and causing the kart to blow up in an explosion of chocolate.

When the smoke cleared, I wiped the fudge off of my windshield and hopped out of my mech to see if the driver was OK.

"Hey, kid! Are…are you OK?"

I ran over to the wreckage. There was a small kid with a blazer and what appeared to be a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup on her (I'm pretty sure it was a girl) head. She opened her eyes and looked up at me "What happened?"

"Sorry about that. I didn't mean to make you lose the race." I said, reaching my hand out to her. She raised an eyebrow, but took it.

"Do you even belong here?"

"No, I'm from Hoshikuzu Robot Force"

"Hoshi-what-now?"

"Hoshikuzu Robot Force. I'm not surprised you don't know it. We were plugged in three days ago. My name's Ren."

The little girl chuckled "The name's Rancis. Rancis Fluggerbutter!"

Once we got the pleasantries out of the way, there was still the matter of how she was going to get to the finish line.

"How 'bout a lift?"

Rancis looked at my now chocolate-covered robot "Y'mean in your giant metal monster here?"

"It's a mech. In my game, we use these to battle each other. Nothing serious, we just tussle into one of us sheds oil or loses a-"

"HEY! Flapping your gums isn't gonna get me to the finish line! Let's go!"

I jumped back into my bot, and Rancis jumped in and sat on my lap, since our mechs didn't come equipped with backseats. She felt quite warm, and it felt kind of nice…

Once we took off, we headed up ahead to where all of the other racers were. There was only a little bit left until the finish line.

"You ready?"

"I guess!"

I opened up my mech's hand and out from its palm popped out a mini motorcycle. All of our mechs were equipped with motorcycles just in case of an emergency.

"NOW!"

I opened up the cockpit and Rancis jumped out, freefalling downwards to try and catch the motorcycle. I watched while the sweet-scented wind slapped my face repeatedly as Rancis grabbed onto the motorcycle before it and her splattered onto the ground and sped ahead of the others. I could tell that they were pretty surprised to see a motorcycle in a go-kart game.

Sure enough, Rancis won the race. The crowd of anthropomorphic candies and junk food cheered and whooped. I began to descend down to the finish line, and as I did, the crowd stopped yelling in joy, and began yelling in fear. Motorcycles weren't the only uncommon vehicle that these little munchkins have never seen before!

"What is that thing?" asked one of the race spectators.

"It's some kind of rock candy monster!" screamed another.

I was about ready to abandon Rancis and book it to a different game when suddenly another little girl with messy black hair and a green hoodie raised her hand into the air. The whole crowd froze, and she started to walk towards me.

I hopped out of my mech and tapped Rancis' shoulder "What's up with her?"

"She's Princess, I mean, President Vanellope."

Vanellope walked up to the both of us. She looked up at me "So Rancis, who's your friend?"

"His name's Ren. He's from Hoshikuzu Robot Force. Y'know, the game made by the same developers of _our _game?"

Vanellope nodded, picked up a tiny little Wonka Nerds candy off the ground and threw it at my mech. It left a bright purple dent "Well Doctor Frankenstein sure has a nifty monster here"

"Hey, watch it! That 'monster' is worth more than you'll ever make in your life!"

I could tell that she was a bit startled by my anger "Why are you even here?"

"I left my game because they don't need me anymore. My team leader unveiled this thing called the MIRROR Engine that makes copies of any Hoshikuzu pilot and mech so that if the player is playing as, for example, me, and they're on my designated round where they'd fight me as an opponent, the MIRROR Engine will automatically generate a copy of me to fight."

"Sorry, you lost me at 'copies'" said Vanellope, eyes half-closed like my whole sob story bored her to death.

"He's saying that they got some kind of cloning machine, so there was no reason for him to stay" Rancis explained.

Vanellope flashed a look of deviance "Well then, if you're going to be staying with us, why not help us out with a little problem we've been having?"

Rancis gasped "Miss President, do you mean the…civil war?"

Meanwhile, back in Hoshikuzu Robot Force, it was nighttime in Shorai City. Kumakichi somehow managed to sneak into the Core, which was Shorai City's main power plant, and the location of the game's code nexus.

Kumakichi crept into the dark hallway leading to the nexus. He then came to a large locked door which had a monitor and a big Super NES controller on the front of it.

He pressed the Start button on it, and on the monitor appeared an "Enter Password" screen. Kumakichi navigated through the letters and numbers with the control pad

"J…U…S…T…I…N…B…A…I…L…E…Y"

After he submitted the password, the door instantly opened up. He took a step inside, and he knew that he had found the game's code. He walked over to the section that had the code for all of the Hoshikuzu pilots. He plucked out a little of all of our codes and dragged them over to the MIRROR Engine.

After he had successfully connected our copied code to the MIRROR Engine, black and white clones of each and every member of the team, from Beta to me, appeared behind him. He begun to chuckle as he turned around.

"My loyal servants, together we will bring about a new era of dominance to the arcade! Every single last game will be under our control. Every hero will be brought to their knees. With the MIRROR Engine at our control, we are IMMORTAL!"

The evil clones raised their hands to their heads in a salute to their new ruler.

"Ha ha ha…turbo-tastic!"


	5. Unlikely Allies

Vanellope and Rancis led me to a hill made of stale cotton-candy overlooking the wide valley below. Vanellope told me to look down. In the valley, I saw hundreds of anthropomorphic assorted fruit-flavored candies, fighting to the death like savages. This was when I concluded that Sugar Rush was like a lemon drop; sweet on the exterior, but sour underneath.

"Is this the civil war you mentioned?" I asked Vanellope.

"Yup. It's the war between the Mikes and the Ikes. The Original and Berry Flavors are on the Mike side, but the Sour and Tropical fight for the Ike side. One day a major dispute happened between the leaders of the two sides, and the whole issue exploded into a full-out battle."

"What do you want me to do?"

"I want you and Rancis to get down there and try to stop the fighting. I tried before, but I didn't have enough soldiers to back me up. It's impossible to find good help these days, don't ya know!"

"I'm not even sure that we'll be enough to stop this. I mean look at all of them!"

Suddenly I heard a familiar noise. The three of us turned around and saw Saburo and Orochi descend from the sky in their mechs!

"Saburo!" I called to my best friend "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Looking for you" he said.

"I appreciate you caring about me, bud, but I'm not going back. With the MIRROR Engine, there's no point in me sticking around. In fact, I don't see why you guys still hang around either."

Saburo cut me off "No no no, that's not actually why we're here. Of course I was worried about you, sure, but we've got bigger problems! Shorai City is destroyed!"

"WHAT?!"

"Well, not entirely, but listen to me! Kumakichi has gone power-mad! He's using the MIRROR Engine to mass produce mechs by the dozen, and sending them to take over the city!"

"Why would he do that?"

"When you've got ultimate power at your disposal, you'd probably go berserk too."

"Good point"

"Anyway, our squad tried to stop him, but they were taken hostage along with the Mayor. Luckily Orochi told me everything that-"

"Wait, wait. Orochi TALKED?"

Orochi looked smug "Surprise, Omega".

"As I was saying, Orochi told me everything that was going on, so we figured that if we were going to stop Kumakichi, we needed more help, so we went to look for you. He thinks that you died outside your game and are gone for good."

"Is he the only one that thinks that?"

"…Nope. Everyone else does, too…"

I had to take a moment to think about it, but there was no other option. I left my game to escape my job, but instead I ran away from my duty. The MIRROR Engine, created to aid the Hoshikuzu Robot Force, is now causing its downfall. I gave Saburo a smile, and that sealed the deal. We started to take off.

"WAIT! What about the war?" yelled Vanellope.

While trying to swallow all of the horrible news Saburo and Orochi fed me, I completely forgot about the whole Mike 'n' Ike conflict. I needed to pay off my debt for their kindness and decency to not have me locked away for accidently terrorizing the populace.

I aborted the launch and told Orochi and Saburo to do the same "I need to stop this war from getting out of hand. If you help me, I'll-"

"Our game is on the brink of collapsing and all you want to do is stay here and play around with Strawberry Shortcake?!" snapped Orochi.

Saburo gave Orochi a look that practically screamed "shut up", and then he said to me "Actually, I have an idea"

The battle raged on. Every Mike and Ike were beating the jelly out of each other, not letting up at all. Me, Saburo, and Orochi stood in front of the whole fight and through our mechs' megaphones we yelled out "STOP!"

I got to say, though, that if we didn't have our mechs at that moment, the whole thing could've been for naught. All of them dropped their weapons and looked at us.

"Stop fighting" demanded Saburo "Violence has no positive outcome. Besides, you guys are Mike 'n' Ikes. When it comes down to it, all of you guys are brothers. You can't have a box of Mike 'n' Ikes with just the Mikes or the Ikes, can you?"

By now Orochi though that the sugary-sweet surroundings were making Saburo absolutely bonkers, but to be honest, he was actually making a lot of sense, like those anti-war activists you see on street corners.

"What did you guys even do to drive yourselves to war, anyway?"

Two Mike 'n' Ikes, one that was blue with red horizontal stripes, the other orange with little green dots, who we assumed were the leaders of each side, walked up to Saburo. The Mike leader pointed to the Ike leader and said "He put Mentos in my Diet Coke hot tub!"

The Ike leader pointed to the Mike leader and replied "Only because he took my entire vintage Nik-L-Nip collection, got drunk from drinking all of it, and blamed it on my daughter!"

"OK, that was really nasty of you guys to do all of that" said Saburo "but a few little mishaps shouldn't drive two brothers to killing each other. I should know. Me and my half-brother get into arguments all the time, but we never get to the point of killing each other. You guys should just forgive the other and get on with your lives."

The two brothers looked at each other and begun to cry "I'm sorry, Mike!" sobbed the Ike leader.

"No, Ike, I'm sorry!"

They hugged each other and bawled like babies while their men raised their hands into the air and cheered. Saburo somehow managed to end a bitter conflict between two bitter enemies in fewer than ten minutes. My best friend continues to surprise me in every way imaginable.

"Now" Saburo called out to the Mike 'n' Ikes "How would you like to fight the good fight this time?"

So that's what Saburo's idea was. He wanted them to make peace so that they could help us take back Shorai City. Manipulative, sure, but oh so crafty. I liked the way he though.

"Follow us!"

Saburo and Orochi led the Mike 'n' Ikes out of the valley and towards Sugar Rush's exit while I went to say goodbye to Vanellope and Rancis.

"Not bad" smiled Vanellope.

"Hey, I knew he could do it!" Rancis piped in.

"Thanks for everything you guys, but I have to get back to my game. I need to stop Kumakichi before not just my game, but the whole arcade is in flames!"

"Then I'm coming with you, Ren!" said Rancis.

"Oh no you're not," I interjected "right now Shorai City is too dangerous for a little girl like yourself".

Rancis looked at me disgusted "I'm not a girl! I'm a guy, you numbskull!"

When I heard those words, I became light-headed. Rancis was a boy all along? How could I have been so stupid! I mean, he did dress like a girl, and he sounded a bit like a girl, but- oh, who am I kidding! I was probably just denying it the whole time I was with him because I was starting to like him. Do I still like him, and possibly love him, even if he is a guy? I had parents that always reminded me over and over again that being gay is wrong, but honestly, what's the harm? It's not like I'm going to start acting like a girly girl or look at pictures of naked men!

Once my light-headedness began to clear up, I looked back at Rancis "Sorry for scaring you like that. I was kind of surprised, though"

"Is that an insult, Ren?" he asked.

"Of course not! It's just that…the game's graphics can make it a little confusing, that's all."

Rancis was still a little pissed, but he bought it. It was a lie, yes, but anything to keep our relationship in one piece. I powered up my mech and initiated the launch sequence "Hop in"

That seemed to make him happy again. He eagerly bounced into the mech and took a seat on my lap, like before. Even after I found out that he was a guy, it still felt good with him in my lap, all warm and sugar-sweet.

"Are you coming to, Miss President?" he asked Vanellope.

"I want to, but I got stuff I gotta do. Y'know, president-y stuff! Good luck though, you guys! Go blow something up for me!"

Me and Rancis took off and met up with Saburo, Orochi, and the Mike 'n' Ike army on the outskirts of Shorai City. It looked nothing like it did when I left. The sparkling, futuristic metropolis that I called home was now gone and replaced by a bleak, burning dystopia ruled by Kumakichi and his clone army.

"Are you ready for this?" Orochi asked me.

"We're Hoshikuzu pilots. We're always ready."

"Yeah!" whooped Rancis "Let's kick some butt!"


	6. Battle for Shorai City

The four of us gathered in the ruins of an abandoned building. I looked out onto the main street and saw Kumakichi marching through, leading his clones on a rampage.

"Greetings, people of Shorai!" he called out in a not-too-convincing benevolent voice "Say hello to the NEW Hoshikuzu Robot Force, or as I prefer to call them, the MONOCHROME LEGION!"

All of the citizens who were listening to him began to chatter in fear. All of a sudden, Kumakichi clapped his hands twice, and several of the Legion mechs powered up their weapons and pointed them at the crowd of innocents!

"Holy crap, he's snapped!" gasped Saburo "He's gonna fire on civilians!"

Saburo whistled, and from behind us came the Mike 'n' Ikes "Go get 'em, boys!"

All of the Mike 'n' Ike soldiers pulled out giant electrified lollipops from the harnesses on their backs. The Mike Leader pulled out his Bugle (the snack food Bugle, not the instrument) and blew into it, and strangely enough, it sounded just like the instrument bugle.

"CHAAAAAAAAAARGE!"

The Mike 'n' Ikes let out a high-pitched scream and ran blindly towards the Monochrome. Right before it fired its cannon at the civilians, it turned around and panicked as the thousands of Mike 'n' Ikes started beating him to death with their lollipops. You can say that I was really, really surprised to see that even giant lollipops, electrified or not, could do so much damage to a multi-million yen battle robot.

Kumakichi was in shock as one of his minions exploded in a ball of flame "What are those things?! Why are they in MY game?! Monochrome Legion, ATTACK!"

Now I've seen some serious fighting in the last 24 hours, what with the Sugar Rush civil war and all that, but nothing could've came close to what happened next. The Mike 'n' Ikes and the Legion charged at each other, and once they were engaged, a great battle erupted. Scrap metal and gelatin flew all over the place in a frenzy of graphic video game violence.

As the battle raged on, me, Saburo, Orochi, and Rancis went searching for Kumakichi, who fled when the fight broke out.

"You guys go confront Alpha. I'm gonna go look for where he's holding the rest of the team" said Orochi.

"OK. Be careful out there, emo boy" replied Rancis

Orochi gave Rancis a sour expression "I'm not emo. I just prefer to be seen, not heard", and with that, he took off to find the hostages.

"Oh yeah, he's totally emo!"

Me and Saburo followed Kumakichi all the way up to the Sky Arena. With nowhere else to go, he attacked. I was able to withstand his hits, but he was just too strong.

"You never should've come back, Omega! Now I'm going to kill you!" he roared, knocking me backwards. I got back up and he started to fire off his swarm rockets. As I ran back towards him, I shot down each one of them with my Gatling gun. Once the rockets were destroyed, I gave him a vicious swipe from my Electro-Blade.

That seemed to do it, a dead-on hit right on the cockpit. The glass shattered and Kumakichi fell out onto the metal floor of the arena.

"Give up, Kumakichi!" I hollered "You're under arrest for betraying the Force and for the destruction of Shorai City, which you were sworn to protect!"

Suddenly, when I walked over to him, he began to "glitch out". As he glitched, he started to change into a short little gray-skinned man in a red-and-white bodysuit and helmet. I recoiled as I discovered who Kumakichi REALLY was: Turbo!

He got back up and looked right into my eyes with an evil stare "You can't arrest the greatest racer ever!"

Before I could do anything, he ran back over to his destroyed mech, and with a flick of his wrists, beams of code shot out of his palms and made the broken robot bigger, deadlier, and with a paint job similar to his own color scheme. He hopped back in and powered it up.

"This is impossible! You're supposed to be dead!"

Turbo let out a maniacal laugh and launched barrage after barrage of missiles at me, but sadly, Saburo jumped in front of me before they impacted, causing his mech to explode in a malicious blast of fire. The force of it knocked me back on my backside, and Turbo was about ready to rip me to pieces.

"It's too bad he did that" he chuckled "I screwed around with the game's code. Now, no one can regenerate, even in their own game!"

It was too much for me to bear. Saburo sacrificed himself for me, and now he was gone. I started to cry "WHY ARE YOU STILL ALIVE, TURBO?!" I cried out in a frenzy of tears.

"A good question!" he exclaimed, kicking me to the wall "Not long ago, I began my reign of domination in Sugar Rush, under the guise of King Candy. But I guess you know that already, don't you? Anyhow, I didn't actually die! I merely split into clusters of micro-code, and was scattered all over the arcade. So you see, I'm just one of the many Turbos floating around the arcade! There's nothing you can do to stop me now, Omega!"

Turbo pulled back his Electro-Blade and was ready to thrust it through the cockpit and kill me. _"I'll be there soon, Saburo…" _I though, while I shed a tear. This was it for me.

"Then how about ME?" called out a voice. Turbo recoiled his mech's arm and looked around. Then out of nowhere, Rancis jumped out and onto his cockpit's glass, trying to smash it with a bent pipe. Turbo shook around violently and managed to shake him off. Poor Rancis fell off, and Turbo looked down on him "Well, well…what have we here? If it isn't little Rancis Fluggerbutter! It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Rancis got to his feet and chucked the bent pipe at Turbo "Back off, you old prune!" The pipe hit the chassis, barely making a dent. Turbo sheathed his Electro-Blade and picked up Ranics "Oh, I'm going to make you regret that, you peanut-butter prick!"

My eyes widened as Turbo tightened his grip on Rancis. I saw him writing and crying out while Turbo started to squeeze the creamy center out of him!

"STOP IT!" I screamed in a dry, raspy voice, limping my way over to him "I LOVE HIM, AND IF YOU WANT TO KILL HIM, YOU'RE GONNA HAVE TO KILL ME FIRST!"

Rancis looked over and smiled at me. Turbo smiled to, but for a different reason "Oh ho ho! Looks like Omega here is a homo! Who would've thunk it? Now leave me alone while I massacre your little boyfriend!"

By now I was mad, and I mean REALLY mad. I couldn't do anything to stop him now; my mech was practically in pieces. Before I completely snapped from rage, I noticed the Self-Destruct button. I had no other choice at this point; my best friend was dead, and the one person I really cared for was about to share the same untimely fate.

"…I'll show you who's a homo!"

I hit the button. Right as Rancis was about to let out his last breath, my mech blew up. The explosion was so huge that down below on the city street, the Mike 'n' Ikes and the Legion stopped their fighting and saw it.

Turbo didn't survive. The explosion didn't directly kill him, but the force of it blew him right off the edge of the arena, sending him down to the ground level, causing his own mech to explode, too. I was positive that he was gone now. After all, I know that a code cluster can't break into a smaller one.

Rancis would've died too if it wasn't for Orochi who swooped in and saved him at the last second. He managed to free the others, too. Once Turbo's code was terminated from the game, the Legion completely vanished, and the sky turned from gray and gloomy back to blue and sunny.

The remaining members of the Force celebrated the reunion of the team, and the return of peace to the city. However, Rancis was unbelievably heartbroken. He kept thinking about how I gave my own life to save him, and how even though when I found out that he was a boy, it didn't stop me from abandoning my feelings for him.

Orochi went over to Rancis and tried to comfort him "Come with me, Rancis. I…may know a way to save Ren".

Rancis frowned and looked away "He can't be saved now. Turbo ruined the code, and now he and Saburo can't regenerate".

Orochi lightly touched Rancis' shoulder "I happen to know a lot about game code. Just come with me. I know what I'm doing".


End file.
